[BaalsBaby]

He couldn't really understand Kreuz with his mouth full of monster neck, but he read enough that he was letting him finish the job. So Straiph waited for a moment, and then the tip of his gun burst, sending a bullet that rocketed straight into the creature's skull. The bullet left a faint black line of smoke that vaguely looked like a stretched double-helix of barbed wire, but again, it was only black smoke that dissipated quickly in the wind.

The monster's body jerked a few times as it emitted a wet gurgle, going limp and flopping to the roof. Straiph finally holstered the gun, and moved forward to kneel before the beast's face, checking it's teeth. Poking the beast's face, he pulled a small vial from his coat and unstoppered the empty thing, putting it against the teeth. A clearish liquid dripped into the vial, and when it was three-fourths full of the substance, he stoppered it and hid it away again. "Well. He's preeeeetty dead now, so I think you can let him go now," Straiph chuckled, standing back up. "Thanks for the help. It's been awhile."

[34]

[Kodai]

Kreuz really wasn't expecting to flinch so hard when the report of the gun sounded. It had been years since he had last heard one... but perhaps some things just couldn't be forgotten. There was even a sympathetic ache in his body, and he was clenching down so hard on the monster's neck that it hurt. Eventually he recovered, though, and released his grip, spitting out the foul blood in his mouth while Straiph collected... whatever it was from the beast's jaws.
"Y-Yeah... it has been a very long time. I don't blame you, though..." The Lucain looked out over the grounds and surrounding forest of the cathedral, which the morning sun was just beginning to touch with its red rays. "...You might be surprised to hear this, Straiph, but... I'm glad that you're here, that I can see you again." Shaking himself, Kreuz trotted back to the secret door to the roof. "Let's go back and check on the girl. It looked like that monster might have bitten her." With that, he swiftly slipped through the door, back down to the main part of the cathedral.

[BaalsBaby]

Well that was... odd. The Lucain was 'glad' that he was here? Last time he remembered, the two hadn't really been on buddy-buddy terms. But he supposed that was then and this was now. Let sleeping dogs lie, as they say, which admittedly made him chuckle at the irony.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go," he agreed, following the Lucain back down the stairs into cathedral. The girl was still there, sitting on the stone table at the altar just like he'd left her. She was staring up at the ceiling where more little rays of sunlight showed through in parts, watching an errant bird flutter around for an exit. Her movements were sluggish, even when she blinked, not even acknowledging the presence of her saviors.The blood seeping from her shoulder wound was still very red, dribbling down her arm onto the table. Straiph sighed and came up to the table, taking her arm which was a bit cool to the touch. "Just gonna take a look at this, okay?" he said with no reply, removing the cloth from her sleeve up so that he could see the puncture wounds of teeth. "Yeah, I'm no medic... We need something to bandage this."

[35]

[Kodai]

Patiently Kreuz waited as Straiph checked the girl's wound, though he thought that something was off about the girl. Throughout this entire ordeal, she hadn't said a word or even seemed to take notice of what was going on. Maybe she had just been frightened into silence, but the Lucain didn't really believe that. Something about this just seemed... unnatural. Suddenly he heard Straiph talking about needing to bandage the wound. "Oh, right. Let me look around, although nothing here is clean..." He skittered off into the back rooms, the sound of his rooting about faintly drifting through the still air. Eventually he returned with a very old, tattered, dirty scrap of cloth in his jaws. Placing it upon the table, Kreuz apologized, "I'm sorry that it's not in good shape, but it should be fine as a temporary bandage." Thinking for a moment, he added, "The well out back still works, if you want to try to wash it off." Again, a pause. "If there's anything else you need, or anything else I can do, just ask."
There was so much that he wanted to ask Straiph about, but he knew that the girl's health was a priority. Still, would Straiph just leave as soon as they patched her up as best they could? He probably would be wanting to get her back to where she belonged, and Kreuz doubted that he would be able to come along on that mission. Kreuz didn't think anyone lived within view of the cathedral, and he didn't think he could leave that perimeter... A small sigh escaped him, and he tried to simply take comfort in the fact that Straiph was standing here, right now.

[BaalsBaby]

Straiph waited for the Lucain to go off and look, taking his time to examine the wounds. They looked pretty deep but they weren't bleeding too badly, meaning he hadn't hit an artery or anything. When the dog returned, he took the cloth in his hands. "Ah, thanks that works." Again. He wasn't a doctor so getting it wrapped was his first priority. But when the Lucain added that about the well, he did think that that might be a better solution, so he picked the child up again without any complaints. "Show me where it is? I haven't been here in quite some time. Which surprises me. Why would you still be here in the first place?" the Calamikuhna asked, patting the girl's back and walking towards the general area of the back of the cathedral. For now, his hesitation about being in this place was replaced by the adrenaline about what had just transpired.

[35]

[Kodai]

Snapping back to reality when Straiph asked him to show him back to the well, Kreuz nodded and rose to his feet, leading the Calamikuhna through the back parts of the cathedral and out into the yard, where a very lonely-looking stone well sat. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to be in as bad a condition as everything else, even appearing as if it had been used recently. "Why I'm still here... I'll draw the water, and then I'll tell you," Kreuz replied, dashing forward to the well. With surprising agility for a canine, he worked the well, turning the crank and bringing up a bucket of water, and even taking the bucket out and placing it on the ground. "Why I'm here..." he began, looking out past Straiph up to the rising sun. "...I can't leave. That's the simple answer. I was bound to this place, all those years ago. That... That priest... tied me to the cathedral with these markings..." He looked down at himself, the intricate designs covering his limbs, back, and face. "Lya Pointa still stands, and thus I remain. But... I don't think it's only that, because I would have died years ago from old age. I must still be here because I have already died and was resurrected, somehow... Again, by... the priest." It seemed that he didn't wish to say the name. "I still don't understand how or why he did it, or even why the gods haven't taken me, since I should be theirs." Kreuz sighed. "It still hurts, sometimes..."

[BaalsBaby]

Straiph followed the Lucain almost obediently, carrying the child in his arms as he did so. They came upon the well pretty easily, and it seemed Kreuz was used to using the well himself even without using his human form. When the water was prepared, Straiph set the girl near the well and began to rinse the cloth out, ringing it so that it was fairly dry. The Lucain began to explain as he did this, looking out at seemingly nothingness.

"Hrm. I see. He was a cruel man, so that doesn't sound beneath him to do that. I would know as well." If Kreuz remembered him correctly, then the Lucain would know that Straiph had his share of disdain for the man that had run this very cathedral. Like the building though,the man was long gone and mostly forgotten. At least, by most. The Calamikuhna seemed to ponder something before he said, "Tell me. Do you wish for absolution?"

[36]

[Kodai]

"I... I wish for that more than anything," Kreuz replied quietly, watching as Straiph tried to make the cloth at least a bit more useful for its intended purpose. "For the gods to forgive me, and to be free of this wretched place... I can't say this for certain, Straiph, but I doubt you know what my existence has been like." His voice began to choke slightly. "I've been alone for... so long. Yes, people have started coming to the cathedral again, but many of them are either darker-minded creatures or curious 'tourists'... I can't approach them. Just look at me!" He stood, glancing over his starved, furless body. "Even if I could find someone that was willing to be friendly, what would I say? I don't know anything about the outside world anymore. And besides, all the visitors -- the 'good' kind, anyway -- have only started coming in recent years. For decades, it was only myself and the shadows..." Kreuz was trembling now. "I... I wondered about what had happened to you, after you left... And Keere. He... I don't know what happened to him; he just never came back... That always seemed odd to me... You don't know what happened, do you?" The Lucain gave Straiph a pleading look. "Can you tell me anything about what's happened in the world since you left?"

[BaalsBaby]

Well. It surely seemed like the Lucain had been alone for so long. Sighing, the priest took the girl's wound and behind to wrap it up, which took him a total of a minute or so. It was enough time to hear the Lucain's pleas.

Once he'd wrapped up the silent girl, Straiph settled down on the ground and leaned against the well, wiping a hand across his brow. "Well. I don't think I know exactly what it's like to be in your shoes, per se, but obviously it's hell. I don't blame you. We're all still trying to recover from this place." He began to shake his hands to dry them a little. "As for that boy, I can't say I know what happened to him, nor did I know him very well. He didn't look in very good shape last I saw him when I was here, but that was years ago. I'm sorry I can't offer more information on the subject then that. As for the world, it's moved on I guess. I hear things, sometimes, things normal people aren't privy to. You'd be surprised what one of them lizards will squeal, just to try and live," he said nonchalantly, indicating with a nod towards the roof of the cathedral where the dead beast lay.

The girl was still lost in her fantasies, looking at the trees and at nothing. She simply sat where she'd been placed. However, one thing did change.

A single tear had been shed.

[37]

[Kodai]

Kreuz listened patiently as Straiph spoke. It was unfortunate that he didn't know any more about what had happened to his human friend, but that was the way things went sometimes. Then Straiph brought up the lizard, and the Lucain was reminded that he had wanted to ask about that. "Speaking of those lizards... what are they? I've never seen one around here before. Usually the spirits that appear aren't powerful enough to be corporeal, and any flesh-and-blood monsters are too weak to cause that sort of fear in me... That thing was certainly something else." Chancing to look over at the girl, Kreuz began to question Straiph about her. "Is... she okay? Something doesn't seem right about her. Even if she was too scared to talk right now, you'd think that she'd be a little more... well... I don't know just what it is, but it's like she's not really here." He continued to look at her and finally noticed the trail of her most recent tear shining lightly in the morning sun. Concern obvious on his face, he went and stood a short distance from her side, unsure of how the girl felt about his appearance. Perhaps he was just as scary as a monster to a young child, after all. "Ah! Are you okay? Did the big lizard hurt you? We're going to try to fix you up and get you back home, okay?"

[BaalsBaby]

Straiph wiped the last residue of water on his pants and kept on leaning against the well, just catching the rest of his breath. It had been a long, tiring chase. "Oh... That /thing/? Apparently, they're called 'Chaos'," Straiph said in quotations. "They're uhm. They're of various intelligence, a race that doesn't really come from this world." Man, did he sound somewhat crazy right now. There were so many that had never hard of thm, and those few that were unfortunate enough to run into them often considered them demons, gods, or simply figments of imagination.

When Kreuz pointed out the girl, she did nothing yet again in response to his inquiries. Straiph noticed the tear and wiped it gently from her cheek, looking over at his confused friend. "She's fine. She might catch a little fever, but nothing to bad... It's sort of... Something I've been tracking lately. A string of occurrences, people ending up bitten and becoming comatose or in a state reminiscent of it. It's still a very rare set of cases, but still. It's happening." To this, he removed the vial again from his jacket and shook it a little. "I believe the answer lies in a few cases of their saliva."

[38]

[Kodai]

"Chaos..." Kreuz had never heard of them, but he had no trouble believing Straiph. He had encountered so many demons and spirits already; another breed of extra-dimensional beings came as no surprise. "I'm glad that I've never met one before. I don't think I would have been able to defeat one myself." Sitting down again, Kreuz listened as Straiph explained what he had encountered with people being bitten and ending up in a comatose-like state. Looking at the girl, he sighed, both in relief and in thought. "Well, that would explain it. So, you think you can make a cure for these people from the saliva of the Chaos? That's like curing the bite of a snake with the snake's venom... It sounds logical. Do you need help with it?" The Lucain looked down for a moment in thought, and then returned his gaze to Straiph. "Is there anything I can do to help? I don't really know what you'd need me for, unless you wanted me to gather herbs or look through the library or something like that..."

[BaalsBaby]

"Heh, yeah they're a bunch of baddies," Straiph chuckled, "Not something you ever want to run into." He digested what the Lucain asked further, shaking the bottle before his eyes. "A cure? Heck if I know. I was just thinkin' about using this on anything else I might run into, though I'm not sure if this works on other Chaos or not. I don't think I know any doctors I'm close to either, so creating a cure might be impossible," he sighed. "I'm not even sure how long this will last either." The Calamikuhna snuck a look back at the girl, who was looking down at the ground now, drawing circles in the dirt absent-mindedly. "Well, you already did a great deal of help, you know. So... thanks for that, I guess." He ran his hand on the back of his neck, probably not really used to accepting help from others. He was a pretty solitary guy, you know? "What... happens if you leave this place, Kreuz? Have you tried?"

[39]

[Kodai]

"O-Oh..." Kreuz drooped a bit as Straiph explained that he hadn't really thought of making a cure out of the saliva. That just highlighted the difference between the two -- Kreuz the soft-hearted shadow of a canine and Straiph the cunning survivalist feline. At least Straiph didn't seem totally disinterested in the girl's recovery, but it did seem that he wasn't about to go out of his way to try to cure the problem now. If she snapped out of it, that was good, and if she didn't, well, that wasn't Straiph's problem. Thinking into it, Kreuz began to wonder if his idea about applying the Chaos saliva in a way similar to snake venom would work. He had no idea how antivenin was made, though, and like Straiph, he didn't know any doctors. They'd just have to wait and see if the girl's situation would get better... Suddenly Straiph's gratitude snapped the Lucain back. "H-Huh? Oh... It's nothing. It's my purpose to protect the cathedral, and I can't ignore an innocent person in danger." He blinked at Straiph's last questions, wondering where they had come from, from a conversational point of view. "I... I don't know. I've never tried. ...Well, I mean, I did try to escape a long time ago, but that was back when... when he was still around. .....It hurt so much, I never tried again. I really don't think I can leave, Straiph... unless I'm given permission. Even then, I probably need to return. He bound me to this place, and I doubt there's an easy way to break that. ...I'd guess even if these bonds could be broken, I'd die... or not even die, but just vanish. The way that I've 'transcended' the gods... I don't think Xai're would be willing to take me."

[BaalsBaby]

"It... hurt?" Straiph asked, dismissing the Lucain's clear disdain for there not being a cure for the girl's condition. There was, as the dog predicted, only so much he could do, and there wasn't any sense in worrying any further about it since they'd already done all they could. So onto the next subject. "I see. I ask because well. Canine noses, as I hear, are better at tracking than... say... a cat's," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the hairless Lucain. "Permission. But Kr-... er... he's gone. He can't give you permission anymore. I wonder if that still binds you if he's not here to fulfill that anymore." Finally, he struggled back up to a standing position, unable to sit still for too long and scanned the dead forests around them, whispering like dark cult watchers. He repressed the urge to shudder. "Do you want to try again? To try and... leave this terrible place?"

[40]